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foreign

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[Music]
park has an interesting history it's we

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really are a train town and although we
were Incorporated in 1898 our history

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really begins with the Metropolitan
branch of the b o railroad which opened

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in 1873 and investors at that time were
really thinking how do you capitalize on

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this and in 1886 a man by the name of
Henry Kopp created the Metropolitan

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investment and Building Company and got
like-minded investors to start buying

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property they bought 500 acres of land
on both sides of the railroad which

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eventually became Garrett Park the idea
was to entice people from Washington DC

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who wanted to get out of the downtown
area come out to what was considered the

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the highlands of Montgomery County and
settle in Garrett Park my name is Claire

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McDonald I am the town archivist for the
town of Garrett Park as the town

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archivist my role is to preserve collect
research and share the town history of

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Garrett Park and we have a rich history
and we're 125 years old the archives

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really began in the 1960s we had a town
clerk at the time by the name of civil

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Griffin who understood that it was
probably important to start collecting

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and preserving
at that time the town did not have a

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town office so many of the original
records of the Town were actually in

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people's homes and civil Griffin went
around collecting those so in a lot of

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ways that was the beginning of our town
archive but then more formally in 2003 a

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Woman by the name of Barbara scheidler
became the first paid archivist for the

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town and started compiling organizing
indexing what we had

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and she was in that role until 2009.
since May is really our birthday month

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on May 21st we held an event it was
sponsored by The Archives committee and

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the town archives and our idea was we
wanted to bring the archives to the

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people so instead of having residents
come here and see what cool things we

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have in our collections we brought the
archives to our town hall and set up

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exhibits to tell the story of Garrett
Park through the decades we had a

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wonderful Barbershop shop quartet snacks
not with archive materials but in

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another room we had activities for the
children and it was really it was so

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wonderful to see families come out and
it was their opportunity not just to

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read and and look at exhibits but pick
things up and and touch them and really

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engage in history in a different way one
of my other favorite collections or item

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that we have in in the archive is what I
have next to me this is a World War II

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role of honor of the gentleman of
Garrett Park who fought in World War II

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this was created in 1944 but I also in
the archive I have a photograph of this

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actually being dedicated so I really
considered this one of the gems of our

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collection one of the things I find
really rewarding as the town archivist

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is I helped the mayor and the Town
Council and the town office

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to provide historical context to today's
issues so many of the problems or

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questions that come up I have records
here in the archives and so I'm able to

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provide that historical context as
they're making decisions that impact

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people today I do get official Town
records from the town office and there's

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a whole legal component to that and so I
work with the town office to ensure

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we're complying with Maryland State Law
we have a records retention schedule for

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those records so they're considered
inactive records of the town and the

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Maryland state archives ultimately will
receive many of those records I have

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this other component of the historical
records and that makes me more like a

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historical society where there are
records that have been donated by

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private individuals or organizations and
that contribute to the history of the

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town if you check our town website
archives committee has a page and it

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describes the type of materials that
we're interested in receiving we have a

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lot of materials from the 1950s but
materials from the 20s or 30s or even

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the 60s 70s 80s we'd definitely be
interested in having photographs

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especially old photographs of the town
are always welcome if you email us at

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archives at garrettparkmd.gov
we'd love to hear from you